This invention relates to a system for lighting a discharge tube which is suitable for a room lamp or a source of light for a display system in a vehicle.
Usually, inactive gas such as mercury vapor gas, argon gas or the like, for instance, is enclosed in a discharge tube along the longitudinal direction thereof.
However, the response characteristic of the inactive gas at a starting period of lighting the discharge tube is deteriorated in proportion to the decrease in the surrounding temperature of the discharge tube, whereby the discharge tube does not light at all, or lights only partly. Therefore, there is a problem in applying the discharge tube to a vehicle because the surrounding temperature thereof changes very much in dependence on a running area or a running time.